A Yogscast Tale of Science and Magic
by Chesscakecheese
Summary: The developing relationship between the Yogscast characters Lividcoffee/Duncan and Nanosounds/Kim - Based off the Flux Buddies (1 and 2.0) So yeah, Nanocoffee / Lividsounds WARNING - may contain fluff :) [I ship the characters, NOT the people - it's just more convenient to call them by their irl names when writing] - complete story 8/8 chapters - enjoy and review (I command you.)
1. A Peaceful Night

The scientist looked at the purple girl beside him and chuckled slightly. She was trying hard to concentrate on the elements in her arcane workbench, studying how to infuse them together, and was purposely ignoring him. It was almost night-time and he was worried she was going to overwork herself; but after the previous joke about how Satan could have combined the elements faster, which Kim had taken to heart, she had refused to stop all day.

"Kim…" he started, but was cut off from an angry wave of her hand, as she didn't even turn around to acknowledge him. Duncan could tell she was still annoyed at him, but he couldn't stop laughing – seeing the small purple girl angry made him laugh… how could someone that small ever feel threatening to him?

"Kim…" he tried again, but was once more cut across by Kim's angry sigh.

"I can't find this stupid element which you mix with silver. And no, I do not want you to tell me what it is because I am perfectly capable of adding more… sparkly… stuff…" Kim trailed off as she sneaked a glance at Duncan with a slight smile on her face as she realised he was trying not to laugh at her.

"It's not funny, Duncan!" she said angrily, despite the smile on her face. Turning around once more to hide this, she started to focus on her crafting and mumbled for Duncan to leave her.

Duncan laughed at her angry expression and made a hastened exit after she picked up her wand and set it casually to 'fire' . Travelling up the elevator, he opened the door and headed outside of Panda Labs. The sign titled "Save us from the taint" was still there, which caused Duncan's mood to drop slightly. He knew it was selfish but now he was also infected with the taint, he was more worried about Kim... and therefore himself. His thought process behind this was if the taint became worse for him faster than it did for Kim, there'd be no hope for her – she needed him to find a cure.

Duncan headed down towards the alter, intent on seeing Sir Ramsey, but paused as he noticed the Silverwood Tree was in bloom and shimmering slightly in the moonlight appearing before him as the sun set behind Panda Labs. He briefly stopped for a moment and then headed towards the tree, the leaves turning in a slight breeze. Although the night was cold, Duncan was too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice it – Christmas was approaching and he hadn't even had time to appreciate it might snow.

He smiled as he remembered how Kim had expressed how she had wanted there to be snow soon – although Duncan wouldn't have put it past her if she had a ritual to do so, seeing as she could now summon storms. A lot of people had told Duncan that he should be keeping an eye on Kim and that it might be unwise to let her study magic and science together – he was ignoring their comments however. Kim was a free spirit – it was one of the reasons why he loved her.

Duncan reached the tree and sat down, leaning his back against its trunk. He stared ahead and watched the moon appear and cast its reflection upon the slightly rippling waters, which otherwise looked real. One day he might actually be able to walk on moonlight – but he'd want Kim to be there when it happened. And it wouldn't happen if she was overcome by the taint along with him.

Duncan leaned back and closed his eyes. He didn't really believe in love, but he couldn't deny the strong feelings he had for Kim – but he had no idea what they were. He was a scientist, and taking on an apprentice was natural, so what he and Kim were, in terms of working relationships, was natural too. Duncan shook his head to himself – logic didn't work with anything to do with Kim, even trying to figure this out. He smiled at this thought before frowning to himself.

_Why is it I can understand beauty, life, science and magic, but not love? _Duncan wondered to himself as he opened his eyes and started to notice all the wonders the night held as he heard both the silence of the waters and the flames of Panda Labs before and behind him. Noting how high the moon had risen, he realised how late it was and decided he should really try to force Kim to go to bed with him.

Blushing, even though there was no one around who could hear his thoughts and how strangely they were phrased, despite his innocent intentions, Duncan picked himself up and awkwardly patted one of the branches of the tree before making his way back to Panda Labs, briefly glancing over to check the rest of the animals were alright before heading off.

"Kim?" Duncan called as he entered the house to be greeted by silence. Confused, but not worried, he headed down the elevator down to the bottom floor; jars were stacked up and piled in different areas. "Kim?" he called again, briefly worrying before hearing a slight noise behind a section of the jars. As he raised his head to glance around them, he found Satan anxiously hovering beside Kim, clearly unsure of what to do, as she lay on the floor fast asleep. Duncan smiled and felt his heart rate go back to a steady pulse, watching Kim sleep with a slight frown on her face. He moved over to the arcane bench and realised that she had managed to make the element she had wanted… and a few other surprise ones at that. Duncan's appreciation was cut short by the sound of Satan's shuffling as he stopped hovering near Kim and went to the purple lighted corridor again – he spent most of his time pacing that corridor for some reason. Duncan crept towards Kim and gently picked her up, carrying her towards the elevator and taking her up to the bedroom.

After laying her carefully on her bed, Duncan tucked his covers around her so she wouldn't get cold in the night, and decided that the sofa would be a comfier place to sleep that night – he was still embarrassed by his previous thoughts of how his mind had phrased something so simple as making sure Kim slept well into something more… well, something more. He crept on the sofa and faced away from her deliberately so he wouldn't be tempted to watch her sleep, convincing himself that it was coincidental that the worry line on her face had vanished as soon as he had picked her up. However, he could still hear her soft sighing as she breathed, and continued to listen to every breath until the night was almost over.

Duncan suddenly realised, as the beginnings of the light began to shine through the window, that he could no longer hear Kim's breathing and stiffened. He relaxed as he heard Kim shuffling about however, and snuggled deeper into the sofa, determined to at least get a few hours' sleep before the work of the morning began.

"Duncan?" Kim's voice questioned sleepily as he heard her sit up in her bed, stretching slightly.

"I'm here, Kim…" Duncan replied softly, raising an arm above the sofa so she could see where he was. He almost felt Kim instantly fall back asleep as she lay back down, to sleepy to question why Duncan was sleeping on the sofa.

"Thanks Duncan…" Kim muttered and resumed sleeping after a moment or so.

Duncan knew he should say 'You're welcome' or something along those lines, but the temptation was too great as he propped his head up on one hand and peered over at the peaceful image of Kim sleeping. He couldn't explain it as he repeated "I'm here, Kim…" instead before putting his head back on the sofa and falling asleep immediately.

In her sleep, Kim smiled.


	2. The Morning After

Duncan was in a slightly grumpy mood. That was one of the first things Kim realised when she bounded down with her usual cheerful "Good morning!" and instead of a smile and a "Morning" back, she had received a slight glare and a nod of the head from across the room. She thought she recalled him sleeping on the sofa… but she couldn't think why. She shrugged to herself; either way, it was clear he hadn't slept well. She had slept very well; she remembered having an odd dream herself, but couldn't actually recall it.

"So, er, Duncan – what are we going to do today?" She asked enthusiastically, waiting for him to smile and motion to the elevator where some hidden surprise would be waiting to be revealed and explained to her which would benefit them in Hat Films destruction in some way.

"You can do some magic and witchcraft if you want…" Duncan muttered as he wandered over the elevator and disappeared out of sight. Kim frowned at his tone and followed him down. After checking the floors below, she realised that he must have taken the secret door as a short cut to her witches hut. Smiling, she ran out and bounded into her hut, only for her face to fall as she realised no one was there.

"Kim?" Duncan's voice drifted towards her as she spun around and saw him watching her as he peered around the altar at her.

"What are you doing there?" she asked, slightly baffled by his behaviour. She walked towards him and noticed the dark lines beneath his eyes. She concluded that he must not have had much sleep last night…

Duncan stepped out from behind the altar, dragging his backpack from behind it and slinging it across his back, stumbling slightly. "I, er, need to go mining for some stuff so … you should stay here and practice something…" Duncan phrased awkwardly, noting how Kim tilted her head and crossed her arms, frowning.

"Duncan. What is the matter with you?" She demanded, her face a mix between worry and slight anger. "And if there's a mining trip then I want to come too…" she added before Duncan cut across her.

"I need to go mining for certain stuff and someone needs to look after the animals whilst I'm gone – do you really trust me with them?" Duncan demanded, motioning to the force-field and the painful incident that had happened a few weeks ago. He rubbed his forehead and wrinkled his eyes slightly in pain at the headache he had. "And I'm fine, Kim." He inwardly winced at how horrible he sounded, the pain in his forehead spiking every few seconds. After the sleepless night he had risen off the sofa with a temperature; Kim didn't need to know that though.

"Seriously, what time did you get to bed last night? You look awful – you're not going anywhere." Kim insisted as she marched towards him; Duncan hastily backed away from her.

"Seriously Kim, I'm fine! I have a headache because I didn't sleep well last night – I only got a few hours. We're low on resources and someone needs to get them and I'm not letting you go on your own!" Duncan shouted, turning away from Kim and preparing to use his jet pack to go to where he had mapped out the mine this morning.

"Then let me come with you." Kim's anger in her voice made Duncan stop and unwillingly turn around.

"What are you talking about Kim? Stay and do something useful." He spat out at her, hating himself more every second. Kim raised herself to her full height and pointed a finger at Duncan. At that moment in time she ignored all of the hateful comments she was receiving; it was her turn to start to get angry.

"Either take me with you so that I can keep an eye on you and make sure you don't collapse or get killed by any monsters, or stay and let me look after you until you're better. You're pale, you're slightly shaking and you're in no position to do anything, so really, that's me saying that... DUNCAN!"

Duncan shot up into the air using his jet pack, intent on flying off as Kim shot up after him – but a wave of nausea hit him and he swerved in the air, heading towards the ground.

"Duncan!" Kim's voice cried out as he started hurtling towards the ground. Duncan managed to blast his jetpack towards the ground as he landed but smashed his head against the altar – he dimly watched Kim land and run towards him as he fell unconscious, a slightly purple blur running towards him.

…

Kim heaved Duncan onto the sofa and sat down heavily beside him, panting slightly. She had rushed inside and grabbed the necessarily materials to clean and bandage his head, had left his backpack in her hut and then dragged Duncan up to the house… all of this had taken a lot of effort and strength; and trying to carry someone a lot heavier than you was hard.

Sighing, she used the device they had christened the 'ipad' and took out some blankets and threw them over him. As she did so she had a sudden feeling of déjà vu and recalled Duncan tucking her into her bed last night. Highly confused, Kim placed the 'ipad' down and closed her eyes, head in her hands, as she struggled to remember the details of last night. She remembered she was working on some silver substance before then…

Kim frowned as she remembered someone carrying her upstairs to her bed – that must have been Duncan. He had tucked her into bed and then gone to the couch and disappeared out of sight; so he had slept on the sofa then. She had woken up near morning and he had still been awake; did he not sleep at all then? Kim frowned as she struggled to remember the fragments of sleepy memory and remembered he had said something to her… she opened her eyes and looked at the sleeping scientist beside her and felt her fragments of the morning slip away and wondered what he had said. She briefly recalled her dream where Duncan had hurt himself in some way and she had had to get Hannah to help whilst there were flying marshmallows. She chuckled to herself at how her dream was now slightly accurate.

Watching Duncan resting was a weird sight. He was always busy and Kim slept so soundly that she never really noticed when he was asleep but now… Kim hesitantly asked "Dunc?" to check if he was awake – the scientist made no reaction to her words. She sighed and rested her hand on his head for a brief second, a way of quietly telling him that she was there. With that, she slowly moved off the sofa, careful not to disturb him, and crept down the stairs, deciding that she would make them both some fresh soup so cheer them up.

She paused for a second on the stairs and recalled how upset he had been when speaking to her – but after another moment she quickly blamed it on him being ill. She knew how she got annoyed when she was sick or tired; and she never wanted to be both. _Poor Duncan…_ she thought to herself and noisily headed back up the stairs before remembering she was trying to be quiet. She poked her head into the room and smiled to see him still sleeping soundly. Without knowing why she felt the need to whisper to him, promising "I'm here… and I'm going to look after you." Humming slightly under her breath, she made her way down the stairs and started to check the fridge and 'ipad' for ingredients.

Upstairs, Duncan opened his eyes exhaustedly for a few moments to check Kim had truly gone this time. Although he felt guilty about his shouting and how ill he was and letting her to look after him, he couldn't help as he slightly smiled and murmured back "Ditto."


	3. Mistakes and Pages

Duncan opened his eyes and rolled out of his bed, stretching his arms behind him. Kim had insisted he had taken a few days off to recover and, whilst he was frequently bored when she wasn't with him, he had managed to sleep and his temperature had gone down. Now that he was better though, panic returned to him – he had been trying to use the mining trip as an excuse to take a break from Kim for a while… and instead it had just drawn them closer. He leaned back on top of the covers and closed his eyes, smiling at the memory of Kim clumsily pouring soup down his front as she had tried to make him eat some; it had burnt him slightly but it was nice knowing, in one way or another, that she cared.

"DUNCAN!" Kim's voice echoed slightly around the house as he heard her use the elevator to go up to the bedroom. As she saw him on the bed she grinned and held out some soup. Duncan was actually pretty sure he would get ill again if he kept living on soup but he didn't have the heart to tell her.

"Thanks Kim!" he replied cheerfully, letting the smile on her face appear on his. Somehow this caused Kim's smile to widen slightly as she carefully made her way over with the soup, holding it out to him; as she handed the bowl to him, her hand slightly brushed over Duncan's hand.

CRASH.

Kim jumped back in surprise as Duncan dropped the bowl onto the floor, shaking his head slightly. "Geesh, Duncan, what was that?" she complained as she ran downstairs to get a towel to mop it up. Duncan lifted his hand to his face and studied it carefully – he had felt the most bizarre electric shock of his life shot through his hand when Kim had passed him the soup. As Kim entered the room looking slightly sulky however, Duncan decided not to mention it.

"Sorry, Kim – it was too hot for me to hold…" he trailed off, edging around her as she focussed on cleaning up the rest of the soup. "I'm just going to get some bread out or something, don't worry!" Duncan added cheerfully as he used the elevator and quickly disappeared out of sight. Kim sighed to herself. Usually it was her dropping things…

Duncan quickly made his way down to the base floor and started to charge up his wand – he had been meaning to do so for the last few days but being ill had made him a bit more forgetful. Also, speaking of forgetful…

Duncan allowed his mind to wander back upstairs to where Kim might still be clearing up the soup, next to his bed… and suddenly felt a wave of fear crash over him. He hadn't worried about it until this moment as he had completely forgotten but his bed side table had started to bulge; the item he was hiding had grown too large, and he needed to throw away some of the rubbish concealing it. However, he couldn't throw that thing away… Duncan shuddered at the thought of the first few pages. It was how he coped before Kim arrived… writing everything down and locking it away. He had promised himself he would never forget the events of _that _day – but that didn't mean he had to look over what he had written; his thoughts turned as dark as the nightmares he had on occasion…

"DUNCAN!" Kim's voice yelled out again and Duncan snapped out of his daydream. _There has to be a reasonable explanation for how someone so annoying can be so important to me… _he thought bitterly as Kim glared at him, although he had to admit to himself that he had no idea how that could be.

"Duncan, there's no copper left! Or tin. Or anything!" Kim whirled her arms about in a slightly annoyed fashion. "We've even ran out of cobblestone!" Duncan laughed at the expression on Kim's face, instantly cheering up, causing the tiny person in front of him to narrow her eyes further. "I'm serious Duncan; we need to go on a mining trip."

"Yeah, we need more materials – I've mapped out an area, I was just about to re-pack equipment for it; will you do me a favour though?" Duncan questioned Kim, the tone in his voice causing her to tilt her head at him curiously.

"Hm? Yes Duncan?" she inquired, suspicion lacing her voice slightly.

"I could really do with a little break from Panda Labs; I've been stuck here for the last few days with nothing to do so would you please look after everything for me whilst I go mining? I promise I won't be long and that I'll be fine!" he added hastily as Kim looked slightly crestfallen. This was his chance to devise a plan to deal with all the problems he was having lately…

"Fine, then. Don't hurt yourself though…" she muttered with a playful smile as she walked with him out of Panda Labs and past the witches hut. Duncan noticed a dent where he had collided into it a few days previously and frowned.

"Yeah, don't worry about that…" Kim smiled, noticing Duncan's frown. "If you collect some wood too then it'll be fine and you and I can repair it together, right?" Kim grinned up at Duncan, completely unaware of her final words echoing in Duncan's head.

"Yeah, it'll be fine… I'll be gone a 3 or 4 days tops, alright…?" Duncan suddenly felt a wave of sadness as he started his jetpack and glanced back at Kim, who was cheerfully waving goodbye. Looking at her, and the purple taint that covered most of her body, he called through the noise of the jetpack "… when I get back, we're going to save you from the taint Kim! I promise!" Kim's eyes widened slightly but she nodded, still smiling as Duncan shot off into the sky and out of sight.

Kim breathed a sigh of relief once he was gone – between the frantic scavenge for materials and things to do whilst Duncan was ill, looking after the animals and then the task of looking after Duncan himself, Panda Labs was now quite disorganised. Kim rolled up her sleeves and put her hands on her hips, glaring at the messy weeds and overgrown flowers spreading around the animals' habitat; even the animals seemed to sense her mood, edging away from her as she marched to her hut and pulled out some gardening tools. _Duncan is going to be very surprised when he gets back… _she thought as she started attacking the weeds as the sun continued to rise in the sky.

…

Kim collapsed on her bed and moaned at her aching hands and back. It had taken the whole day to clear and sort out everything around Panda Labs – she had even flown up to the missiles to see if she could tidy up some of Duncan's redstone trails (on a closer inspection, however, she had decided not to interfere.) She rolled over on her side and looked at Duncan's empty messy bed beside her.

"So I'm really alone for a while…" she said to herself thoughtfully as the sun started to set behind her. The light seemed to illuminate Duncan's side of the room, a silent confirmation of what she had said. However, as the light fell on the table beside Duncan's bed, Kim realised that the drawer wasn't shut properly. Knowing that Duncan's bedside table, whilst forbidden to enter, would be very messy, Kim struggled with her conscience and desire to organise for a further few minutes before deciding she would open it and sort it out so, at the very least, the drawer would be able to close properly.

Kim leapt up and shuffled over to the drawer and slowly opened it, holding her breath, only to release it in utter disappointment and horror and she discovered a few old apples and various pieces of rubbish were laid on top. _Well, I'll just rearrange these…_ she thought as she moved the apples to the back. As she cleared them aside, she noticed half a page sticking up against the side and leading underneath the base of the drawer; as she pulled at it, the whole of the base of the drawer shifted slightly, revealing a secret panel.

Kim knew she should replace everything instantly and that Duncan would never forgive her if she ruined something important to him, but her curiosity got the better of her – he never kept secrets from her… and yet, this was evidently something very secret. Lifting up the hidden compartment, she saw a large diary, stuffed to the brim of extra pages from the front to the back. Shakily, she pulled it out and sat on Duncan's bed and examined it, her heart falling as she noticed it had an enchanted lock on it. As she turned it over in her hands however, it slipped through her grasp and fell against the floor, causing a few of the pages to fall out; she froze in terror, forgetting that Duncan wouldn't be around to tell her off.

Picking up the book with panic speeding her actions, she quickly shoved it back into the drawer, closed the lid of the false base and messed up the rubbish on top, bringing the apples to the front again. As she shut it, she realised that the drawer now shut completely and, although she struggled slightly with her conscience, she rearranged one of the apples to wedge against it slightly, causing the drawer to be unable to shut completely. She breathed a sigh of relief and then stared at the pages on the floor – she couldn't put them back in the book as she couldn't break the lock, and she couldn't leave them in the drawer as it would appear too obvious that they hadn't merely fallen out. She would just have to hide them and hope Duncan didn't notice...

As she picked them up, she noticed something strange – Duncan's handwriting, which was usually quite large and scruffy, was small and… less scruffy. At a further peek, she realised that it also had a date etched into the top of it, too smudged to make out, and that it wasn't something Duncan had written in the last few weeks; it seemed much older. However, Kim's eyes widened and her heart began to pound as she read the topic written underneath it; this was it, this was Duncan's secret – his past.

Forgetting about anything else, Kim walked over to the couch and curled up slightly, eyes locked as she began to read the diary entry captioned: "Nuclear Device".


	4. Truths Untold

[**Editor's Note** \- **Duncan's journal entries below are basically re-written versions of what he said in Duncan's Tekkit episode when he sets up the nuke at Blackrock Stronghold, and Rythian's Tekkit Rebirth episode where Zoey visits him and Duncan traps Rythian; I DO NOT OWN THE EVENTS THAT HAPPEN (a.k.a I didn't come up with them obviously - they are from the actual series) ... that's just in case someone says "You've used the plot from episode blah from blah" etc - for my story to progress, you need to know this past so I'm just providing a brief summary in the form of diary entries. Hope that's okay with you readers - leave a comment / review if you have anything you want to say about the story (hopefully nice things) and... yup. sorry for bringing up bad memories of the old server in this chapter...]**

**[P.S. Apologises for making you read the wall of text above ^ - hope you enjoy the next section of the story!]**

Kim looked at the page in front of her, full of wonder. "Nuclear Device" sounded like he had built some nukes in the past for some occasion; no wonder he knew so much about how to build the rockets! Kim noticed she was squinting as the page and looking around her, noticed the room was only lit by the last rays of sunlight – lighting a candle, she propped it on her bedside table and, after snuggling under the covers as if it was a bed time story, she began to read:

_I've been building a lot of bits and pieces at the moment (basic machines really) and I was going to build the cannon today but… I had another idea. I am going to build something which will stop Rythian's warmongering; I have a plan. I'm going to build a small force field containing a nuke… and I'm going to put it under his base. I'll have the detonator – he won't be able to stop me. I can set it off whenever I like, and he won't be able to stop me. _

Kim paused. Rythian… she had heard that name mentioned before, but only in whispers. Was this why no one talked about him? Why she hadn't heard anything other than a name? And why did Duncan want to blow up his base?

_That doesn't mean I am going to blow up his base _(…"Good…" Kim breathed before reading on…)_ – that's not my intention at all… I just have the power to do so if he wants to attack me… If he wants to keep the peace, then I will aim to keep the peace… I'll power the force field using generators and feed them coal or something; something to allow the force field to never run out of power._

Kim skipped the next few paragraphs – there wasn't anything of interest in them when he was describing what he was making. She started resumed reading properly when he described arriving at Rythian's base…

_Huh. Wow. I flew over to his "castle" (compared to mine, it's highly pathetic)… it's overgrown and unclean… there are cobwebs everywhere; maybe it should be nuked after all._

_I want him to know that he is unable to stop me. I am more powerful than him. That whatever he does and whatever he tries to do, I will always be a step beyond him…_

Kim paused. Duncan was writing quite… darkly. As if he was obsessed with power. She quickly turned the page over and carried on scanning the words….

_No amount of magic or science can get through a force field; I turned it on and it was impossible for me to get out. I built a large area and cleared it out, just so that they'd be able to see it – so that when they found it, they'd know it was useless. If the nuke goes off in the force field, it would be contained – but I quickly set up a system that when I activate the nuke, it will turn off. Just as long as Rythian can see it; I don't want to ruin anything I don't have to, I just want to make sure that I'm safe. Three nukes safe… Boom. Boom. Boom._

Kim read on in horror at the bluntness of Duncan's writing. Surely even it was for his safety, as he stated, surely he wouldn't take such delight at this deliberate unprovoked attack…?

_I went back to the base and picked up some teleport blocks so I could get out of the force field once I set it off – as I arrived and made my way to where I had set up the nukes, I heard something. Rythian. _

_I heard Rythian arrive at the base and panicked briefly, trying to test out the system; luckily he left fairly quickly… but the system worked. I checked everything was working and Rythian returned upstairs. I paused as I was about to place them… I was terrified. One… two… three… I teleported out, and destroyed the remote access… if Rythian holds me at gunpoint, or threatens to kill me, there is still nothing I can do. The only way to turn off that force field is to detonate the nukes. _

_This will stop Rythian from the war. This will keep me safe. There is no way back now._

Kim reached the end of the page and laid it beside her, her hands shaking slightly. She didn't know why, but she felt unbelievably scared. Duncan had set up a nuke a while back under someone's base… just so he would be safe? What happens if he had accidently sat on the detonator?! Kim thought about how careless Duncan could be before realising why she felt so scared – the Duncan who was writing this was a different Duncan from the one she knew. Taking the next page, she realised it wasn't the beginning of an entry, and was halfway through; nevertheless she read on:

_I was working and I heard a voice ask "Hello? It's Zoey and her dinosaur!" so naturally I was instantly suspicious; Rythian had probably sent her to do something to me… however, she promised she was there on neutral terms and for some reason… I believed her. I can't explain it – the optimism in her tone and her trusting smile made me believe her. I gave her some of brew I had on me and greeted them suspiciously… and was amazed to discover that she had left Rythian… for science! Science! Even Rythian's apprentice (well, former apprentice apparently) could appreciate that magic and science could be used in harmony. She asked for weapons to defend herself… of course, I wasn't going to say no to someone needing help. She was eager to learn how to function the scientific equipment I had and was constantly wandering around and investigating different chests; I didn't mind her messing up the chests; they were always organised. _

Kim couldn't help but laugh. Duncan's chests were always organised? She was the one who organised them these days…

_I gave her a musket and bullets… well; actually, I gave her dinosaur a musket and bullets._

"What?" Kim asked out loud in disbelief. There had actually been a… dinosaur? She thought that had been code for something. Just how old was this entry?! Skipping ahead slightly, she continued:

_She was dismayed to discover her bat box stored hardly any power in comparison to mine. I briefly showed her how the force field worked around my castle; she seemed very curious about it and for a brief moment I was worried that she had discovered the nuke and that was why she was asking… but I didn't want to mention it – I was glad of the company, and when she suggested that she could come back for lessons whilst staying away from Rythian… I won't lie when I said I was pleased. She understood some of the systems and that half magic and half science was more powerful than just following one path… I laughed as she voiced this to me; she didn't understand why though. She didn't understand how unbelievably happy she had made me in that moment._

Kim paused. Duncan was… lonely. He seemed to sound a bit more like her Duncan. Blushing slightly at her thought process of 'her' Duncan, she looked at the next section:

_As she left though, my heart sank slightly. Suppose she returned to Rythian… and suppose he corrupted her… or if he discovered that she had been speaking to him… I was confused for a moment before realising that I just needed the company. That was all. I had arranged to meet with Rythian later today – when he came, he would be in for a surprise._

Kim frowned. The next few passages seemed more agitated in the way the previous paragraphs had been written – as if Duncan had been eager to quickly write everything he could remember down.

_I watched as Rythian entered the grounds and immediately inspected the block structure; as soon as he was within range, I activated the force field around it. My trap had worked! My mind turned dark however as he mockingly asked if every guest was treated with the same hospitality when they just wanted to talk. Why couldn't he be civil? I said he could talk from inside there - I knew immediately when he spoke of the old world being destroyed and that it needed "retribution" that it was wise for me to have him in the force field, and have one under his base; he was too dangerous, to bent on revenge. I asked if I could just say sorry and tried to defend myself by blaming it on Sjin… he didn't believe me. It had been worth a shot. _

Kim's mind was already racing with questions; why was the old world destroyed? Why did Duncan have to apologise? It didn't make sense; Duncan wouldn't destroy a world… not on purpose anyway…

_He didn't believe me when I said I wasn't as involved in the killing and exploding of people and buildings; I pointed out he was the only one who cared about it in an attempt to distract the fact that the majority of what he had said was true. Before I could stop myself I added that Zoey didn't care about it and that she had stopped by to see me that morning; he seemed to falter for a moment and I immediately regretted it; I didn't want to bring her into it, not really… I just wanted to make him hurt, before he could hurt me._

Kim was in shock… she felt nothing as she read on:

_I told him to get over it – it was in the past… but he wouldn't let it go though. I voiced that he was determined to continue the war; but he surprised me by asking that all he wanted was a promise that what happened in the old world would never happen again… I was shocked, but then he made it clear he was being slightly sarcastic as he pointed out the evidence that I didn't want the same, that I hadn't changed – that my castle would have bombs and nukes and things to destruct the world. I realised, remembering the nukes under his base, that he was slightly right. But I didn't really care._

_I sheepishly admitted to placing a nuke under his base and that he wouldn't be able to get rid of it – and that I wasn't bluffing. I laughed nervously and he took offence. He said that the actions I had taken, placing a nuke under his base and trapping him in a force field meant that he had underestimated me; he had expected better; I wanted a war. I tried to explain it was for security purposes but he didn't believe me. I said I wouldn't let activate it, that the detonator wouldn't go off – he pointed out that someone could find out the frequency or steal the remote and set it off without me._

Kim found herself nodding in agreement with Rythian – Duncan was a bit of an idiot for not realising that. Even she could have figured that out as a possibility.

_I will not lie, that had not occurred to me; and the fact that Rythian, someone of magic and no appreciation of science, had understood that, really angered me. I dismissed it as it not being my problem if it was set off – and that I would keep him as a lawn ornament; he uttered to himself the words I knew I'd remember for years to come "…I can't trust you; I can't trust her; I can't trust anyone… I'm on my own." At that moment I had the briefest moment of pity for him – but then he went haywire in the force field, destroying the ground beneath him to try and find a way out, failing. _

_"__Nice hole – now it's all horrible and holey… you've got to live here… you could have eaten grass… hopefully your magic will sustain you; have fun! I'm going to go to some more science!" I taunted him. I taunted him because I was more powerful than the mighty mage, I had trapped him, and he would never hurt me. I was safe. I could afford to be cruel._

_"__You'll pay for this Duncan."_

The next part had been added in a slower fashion, and seemed to have been added as an afterthought at a later date - the writing seemed slower, and the pen seemed to be thicker and heavier on the page.

_I remember laughing "yeah, good luck!" before flying away. If I had known that Zoey was watching and had heard that there was a nuke under her base… if I had known that Rythian would figure out a way to escape the force field… it's a regret I know I'll carry for the rest of my life._

Kim leant back and felt tears form in her eyes, and without knowing why, started to cry. Zoey was another unspoken name. Zoey, who seemed to be happy and kind and someone who could make Duncan happy in less than a day – Zoey, Rythian's partner it seemed, who knew there was a nuke under her base... as much as she wanted to Kim knew that she couldn't read the last pages she had. Not yet.

_Duncan is my friend. He is my partner _Kim thought to herself… she longed to know what happened next; how Rythian had escaped, what Zoey did next. What Duncan had done to Rythian's partner… _Not yet_ she thought. Her heart seemed to be screaming the words at her; 'not yet'. Realising it was quite late and how tired she was, Kim blew out the candle beside her and clutched the pages to her closely, still crying. It was only as she drifted off to sleep that she dimly realised why – something terrible had happened to those two people because of Duncan.


	5. A Fitting End

**AN: So, of course, the first Flux Buddies series has finished… but there is another one coming! So I'm going to try and wrap the old series up in the next chapter (so it'll be a bit longer) and then will start with the new series as best as I can! This means that this chapter is going to have a little bit of a rushed feel to it… so it'll be a bit weird at first, but hopefully it will go well ****J****I also have neglected to put the details of the nuke battle in place so will just start the next chapter with a brief recap of it because I am not even going to attempt to summarize both perspectives and events of that battle… ****J****Enjoy! **

Kim could barely keep her eyes open the next morning. She had woken in the middle of the night to hear herself screaming and whimpering, and she knew that it was because she didn't know what had happened to Rythian and Zoey. So she had lit another candle, and read on. And now she knew everything. She knew that Zoey had gone back to the base to re-join with Rythian, and that she had tried to disable the nuke, and that everything had had been blown up. She knew that Rythian had tracked down Duncan and asked for peace – Duncan had wrote this very strangely in the entry but she knew it was true. Duncan had completely ruined their lives… twice, it seemed.

Kim ended up endlessly hovering around, checking on the animals, watching the nukes being made. She felt uneasy. Rythian had been, ultimately, unable to protect Zoey. Duncan might not be able to protect her… or any of the creatures they had. She needed to make sure they were safe from the nukes… and, if it came to it, safe from Duncan. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't realise, when she drifted down to the lowest floor of Panda Labs, that she was no longer alone.

Seeing Duncan's wand charging on its stand seemed to shake Kim out of her thoughts. Duncan was back, she hadn't noticed. Where was he? Was he by the nukes? Would he set them off without her? Would Hat Films be completely and utterly destroyed, like Zoey had been? Did they really deserve that fate?

"No…" Kim whispered to herself, as her mind pictured the devastation described in Duncan's diary. She wobbled slightly and had to hold onto the workbench beside her to steady herself. "I can't let this happen… I can't let Duncan deal with this on his own…" she murmured to herself, and decided in that moment what she was going to do. She flew up to the main computer and took out her bag.

Meanwhile, Duncan was flying around the witch hut, looking for Kim. "KIM?!" he yelled, swooping and landing in the centre of the magic rings. "Kim?" he called, popping his head inside and finding no one there. All the animals were well fed and happy, so Kim must had been around here a while ago. Using the secret back entrance, he walked around Panda Labs, heading to the lowest level to collect his wand first, before heading up the floors, wondering if she was in their room. As he entered their bedroom, he cast a glance over at the empty beds and sighed. He could do with a quick nap after he found her… He suddenly noticed there were some pages of writing on Kim's bed… they looked awfully familiar…

"DUNCAN!" Duncan almost jumped out of his skin as he turned and saw a small, purple wild haired monster appear behind him.

"Kim? Oh my god Kim, are you alright? You look… well, you look like death!" Duncan added, momentarily forgetting his manners as he cupped her chin up and examined the dark circles under her eyes. Kim hastily stepped away, stubbornly folding her arms.

"I'm fine Dunc – but we've got a problem; we're completely out of gunpowder for the nukes."

"What!?" Duncan gasped, remembering emptying several stacks into the computer only a few days ago. "But it was full!"

"Well the nukes aren't making themselves and need gunpowder so seeing as you're all packed, you can go and get the gunpowder, right?" Kim smiled sweetly and Duncan knew at that moment, without a doubt, that Kim had taken the gunpowder.

"So… say you were trying to get rid of me somehow…" Duncan pondered thoughtfully, noticing Kim's smile waver momentarily before forcefully returning to her face, "…why would you want me to go?" He said all this with a playful tone, but inside he was worrying. Had he said something to her…?

"Honestly…?" Kim sighed and looked down at her feet… she looked so troubled that Duncan had to work very hard on not to squeeze her into a hug, and instead fidgeted with his fingers behind his back as he patiently waited for her to reply.

"I'm just a bit tired, and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and I have a lot I want to get on with by myself…" Kim started, as Duncan turned away from him, giving her a moment to relax and fix the expression on her face.

"So it has nothing to do with the pages which are on your bed then." Duncan's sudden change of voice forced Kim to take a step back as Duncan remained motionless, staring at the bed. He could make out some of the words from here. He could remember writing them. He could remember _thinking_ them. He could…

"Duncan, I didn't mean to read them…" Kim began, trailing off as she heard how pathetic she sounded. Of course she had meant to read them. They were on her bed. There was no way out of this. Duncan remained still.

"So what do you think of me then?" Duncan's voice asked, without a betrayal of any kind of emotion. Kim opened her mouth to reply as Duncan cut across her. "Am I not a monster? Do I delight in hurting people? What do you think of me Kim?" Duncan's voice progressed to a roar as he turned around and looked at her, the pain in his eyes evident, his breathing unnatural, as if he was choking on the air. Kim wanted to turn away but found she couldn't. She couldn't run.

"It wasn't you… you're different now..." Kim managed to whisper, watching the anger and pain die down into sadness as the scientist walked over to the sofa and sat down heavily, placing his head in his hands.

Running a hand through his blonde hair, he muttered to himself "But I haven't really changed… not really…" He looked up at Kim, his eyes unfocussed slightly. "I want to nuke Hat Films before they hurt us. I want to hurt people. I will be delighted if they are hurt to the extent they cannot hurt us. That is why I am doing it. I saw what Rythian lost; I'm not going to lose…" Duncan stumbled on the last word, desperately trying to finish it off the sentence.

Kim stood awkwardly until she was sure that Duncan wasn't going to add anything else. When she was sure, she stated slowly "I'm going to go and ask Hat Films to make a peace treaty with us, and see if they're interested. It's not too late. Not yet anyway. And we do need more gunpowder, by the way. I used up a lot of it by myself." As she fumbled in her bag for her portal gun, Duncan stood up and held onto her wrist, causing her to freeze.

"Kim, I…" he began but stopped as Kim wrenched her wrist from his grasp with a strange expression on her face. "We might need those nukes Duncan" she said firmly and marched through the portal and out of sight. Duncan stood there for a moment, filled with anger at himself, and half considered the thought of blocking the portal so she couldn't return. Struggling with the temptation to throw something into the portal after her, he paced angrily around the room.

"Fine!" he yelled pointlessly after her at the portal – sound didn't travel between them but he felt better for shouting anyway. "Go then!" He picked up on of the gohlems and threw it at the wall, dissatisfied as it merely bounced off and didn't smash, as he had hoped it would. He picked it up, noting where Kim had carefully crafted his name on the back of it. He choked back a sob as he placed it carefully back down, looking back at the portal.

"You, Kim. I don't want to lose _you._" Duncan said bitterly as he marched towards the stairs. He paused and leant his head next to the portal, momentarily comforted by the noise it made. "I didn't ever want to lose you…" Duncan sighed and turned around and walked to his bedside table. Within a few moments he had taken the pages and put them back in their original places, briefly staring at the words he had once written.

_How do I convince her that I have changed…?_ He wondered to himself, when an idea struck him. Fumbling through the pages, he finally found the entry he was looking for, quickly reading it over to check there were no damaging ideas or actions implied. He was just about to close it when he realised that he had written an afterthought at a later date, half concealed by bottom of the page being slightly folded over. Opening it, he read the words '_She reminds me of Zoey sometimes.'_

Duncan carefully tore out the line and held it in his hands, deep in thought. Yes… he understood it now. The pain and damage he had done to Rythian was because of what he had done to Zoey. Zoey had meant the world to him. He almost lost her because of Duncan – and could never forgive Duncan because of it. Duncan smiled sadly as he concluded to himself "Rythian completely loved Zoey." So maybe… that's how he felt about Kim.

_Well, almost…_ he thought to himself as he folded up the torn fragment and glanced at the portal. She was a right pain sometimes, and far too stubborn for him. She was also very noisy and chatty sometimes whilst sulky the other time. To say that she meant the world to him could be true… but there were hundreds of worlds, and the universe and stars to consider…

_You're in denial…_ a voice seemed to whisper in his head, but Duncan ignored it. He actually felt briefly at peace with himself for the first time in a very long time. Kim meant the world to him… no... she meant _this_ world to him. Smiling, he left the diary out for Kim to see on her return, and started to re-pack his bags. Time to hunt some creepers.

Kim returned several hours later, still fuming at the Hat trio. "I got the final laugh…" she announced as she walked through the portal "… we are going to blow them away, right Duncan?" She bounced into the bedroom and suddenly remembered how she had left it. "Oh…" she said simply, as she slung her bag onto the floor and listened for any movement in the house – nothing. Noticing the diary on Duncan's bed, she immediately began to feel panicky; but then she noticed that it was facing the portal and looked like it had been deliberately placed that way… maybe Duncan wanted her to read it now…?

"It can't get any worse Kim…" she said to herself as she walked over, noting the date on the entry. That was the day she had met Duncan! Kim's eyes widened as she eagerly picked up the diary, noting that it was a slightly short entry than the other two, but still full of writing:

_Well, she fell out of the sky. I still can't quite get over that! She began to talk far too quickly for me to understand, but I managed to word out that Sips had blown her up… bit like I had done with Rythian's base…_

Kim's eyes narrowed as she read this, but the next few sentences pushed it out of her mind;

_I introduced her to my castle – she was pleased with it and said it was better than Sipsco; I responded with thanking her, although I did point out there was some dangerous flux level problems at the moment, to see if it would scare her off. I assured her it was nothing I couldn't handle; it wasn't too dangerous. Having said that, I had to warn her about the door though, which would have instantly killed her. She sarcastically responded by saying about how pleased she was that she had gone to a better place from being on fire… She actually made me laugh, believe it or not._

_I wanted to show her the castle but she couldn't fly – instead of being annoyed, she took delight in that I could, and the plasma cannon, and the spaceship… although she did point out that it was highly dangerous. However, everything she saw seemed to awe and please her, as I explained various different science approaches; I offered to teach her some, and she agreed. I couldn't promise not to blow her up though (like Sipsco) and instead promised that if she __**did**__ blow up, she wouldn't be too badly hurt… and that I wouldn't do it deliberately – looking at her, I knew I'd keep that promise; I'd never deliberately blow her up._

_She also talked about getting revenge on Sipsco – so maybe that could be interesting; I think I will like taking her on as an apprentice; I'll give her a wand, teach her magic, teach her science. She shall be my companion and I'll look after her._

Kim smiled, tears glistening in her eyes; it a kind of weird, science like way, Duncan had really accepted her when she first met him. She glanced over the rest of the entry, which seemed so long ago in her mind, of her rushing about and constantly asking questions and reportedly laughing and cheering him up considerably. She noticed the page was torn slightly at the bottom, but took no notice of it. She moved her hand to turn the next page…

"Woah Kim!" Duncan's voice suddenly shocked her out of her reading as she glanced up in time to see Duncan's slightly red face as he quickly snatched the diary away from her. Refusing to meet her gaze, he said awkwardly "It's still a diary Kim, you've read the worst parts…"

Kim smiled innocently. "So… if I've read all the worst parts, I can read the rest?" she asked, waltzing up to Duncan and trying to take the diary back. Duncan held it above his head, quite above her reach.

"No chance… but honestly Kim, you know the worst about me now… can you accept that?" Duncan's voice came close to breaking at the end as Kim looked at him, searching his eyes for any signs of evil or faked guilt. Apart from the flux that had started spreading on one side of her face, she detected nothing.

"I tell you what, you'd better have got a lot of gunpowder, because Hat Films need to be blown off the face of this planet – I got their co-ordinates too to put in the missile silos…" Kim grinned wickedly as Duncan laughed.

"I'd better go and hide them, I reckon they know where they are…" Duncan said thoughtfully, wondering why Kim looked sheepish for a moment.

"So long as you don't set them off without me – I want to set them off together Duncan!" Kim beamed and Duncan had a sudden vision of all the nukes lighting up the sky whilst him and Kim laughed.

Duncan and Kim laughed at each other as they unanimously said "Let's go nuke Hat Films!"


	6. A New Beginning

**A.N - Okay, so I have the feeling that this chapter is going to be one of the longer ones. Just as a quick warning, it's highly intense, so make sure you've got some chocolate or something to eat at the end; the next one will be a lot more cheerful... BUT no more spoilers - enjoy this next chapter :) as always, reviews and comments are appreciated as it encourages me to write these more often so... if you want more, drop a review or something; once again, enjoy!**

"Kim! Kim the Chocobo's have grown!" Duncan called excitedly as he rushed outside to the small paddock. Kim rolled her eyes in a response, standing in the doorway and frowning at Duncan.

"Duncan, you said you'd start on jetpacks!" she pointed out, crossing her arms unhappily as Duncan temporarily ignored her, completely fixated on the new Chocobo. It was cute, she'd give him that, but it still annoyed her.

Kim turned her back on Duncan and marched into their base, staring in dismay at the smeltery as she realised that, yet again…

"DUNCAN. What did I say about the smeltery?!" Kim complained as she saw the large bubbling quantity of Angmallen residing in it. Duncan had criticised about mixing the two together seconds before but as soon as the Chocobo came in sight, everything else seemed to be thrown out of the window… Kim was beginning to wish that she had never encouraged him with them. Having said that, she couldn't let Duncan kill them… as much as she wanted to kill them, with the amount of attention Duncan was giving them, that was just inhumane.

"What do you want to name them?" Duncan asked happily as he watched them, smiling as she reappeared in the doorway. Kim threw up her hands in a response and tried to sulk, failing miserably as she walked away. She was good at being grumpy but she couldn't help call back a few names, wanting to be a part of the naming process.

"How about Quistis?" Duncan called after her, knowing she wouldn't like it. Kim turned around briefly and even from a distance Duncan could make out the raised eyebrow in disbelief.

"BOB!" Kim responded sarcastically, nodding as Duncan asked if she was serious. Duncan shrugged and fastened the collar around the Chocobo's neck, adding "Bob" in an untidy scrawl.

"What about the female one?" Duncan shouted as she continued to walk away. He watched as she paused for a second as she considered a name. After hearing 'Billy' and immediately denying it as ridiculous, more so than Bob, he agreed to something that sounded like 'Billamina'; at least it was slightly more feminine. By this point, Kim was out of hearing range, or so she pretended to be, so Duncan decided he'd leave the rest to his fate, eventually deciding on 'Radon', 'Chobi' for the baby and 'Boco' for the last.

As she walked out of sight, Duncan sighed and lost the smile on his face as he let his shoulders drop and fumbled in his bag, taking out the spy glass he had made a few days before. Raising it to his eye, he watched as Kim strolled amongst the flowers, picking the occasion few and laughing to herself until she disappeared into a thicket of trees and out of sight. Placing the spy glass back into his bag, he patted the nearest Chocobo (Radon, maybe) on the head before heading into the house and collapsing wearily on the double bed, lying spread out and staring at the ceiling.

'Things aren't too bad' he thought to himself as he considered what had happened in the last few weeks. They had managed to build a home… well… he had built most of it in all fairness whilst Kim complained about the patches in the roof. And he had managed to build some steam engines and a smeltery whilst Kim had made her petal wand. Duncan chuckled to himself as he recalled her trying to place down her strange mana-shooting box until giving up, only trying one more time to find it had managed to work. She had been very happy at that moment…

Duncan sat up and leaned his head against the cold brick wall. Kim had changed since Panda Labs had gone. There was no question about it; she was constantly going off on her own, trying to battle monsters and mine new ores and explore the surrounding area. Duncan liked to think it was because she wasn't ready to accept the fact that this was now their new home, their way of life, away from the danger of Hat Films. He liked to think that because the only other option was that she was trying to be away from him.

Duncan closed his eyes, wearily thinking of everything he had done or said to Kim over the past few weeks. True, they'd shared some laughs over the last few weeks but she had definitely been affected by the nuking of Hat Films and of Panda Labs disappearing more than she was letting on. Whilst Kim might be happy that they got the last laugh and that Hat Films were reduced to dust, he could still see traces of the nightmare that accompanied her so often in her dreams each night on her face every day; he even saw it in the way she spoke sometimes, in the aggressive nature of the Hat Films trio. She wasn't _his_ Kim any more.

He frowned as he dismissed this and looked at his hands, twiddling his fingers and noticing the rough edges around them; hands that worked too hard in machinery, constantly. Meanwhile, he knew, Kim's hands would be delicate and fragile after picking all the flowers and handling all of those strange petals. He turned his hands over before his eyes, studying them closely. They would be so different to Kim's tiny purple stained hands… he'd probably crush them accidently if he ever had the chance to hold them.

A thought entered unwillingly into Duncan's head. _She still thinks you're a monster_… it whispered to him as he shook his head violently, as if trying to shake the thought out of it. Kim had forgiven him, he knew that. She wouldn't lie to him about holding something so important and meaningful against him, he knew her too well. Yet… Duncan racked his brains, his mind coming up with all kinds of reasons why Kim might be distancing herself away from him. Had he forgotten to smile at her every morning when she woke up? He had taken to going to bed after she was asleep, and getting up before she woke up; she had complained about the beds being together and had wanted to move them at the beginning when the house was tiny. Now that the house was bigger, she could have moved it to the other side of the room if she wanted to… but neither of them had said anything. Still, she seemed to be satisfied with waking up on her own.

Duncan looked at the other half of the bed next to him. He wouldn't lie; it was an amazing experience to wake up early in the morning and find that Kim had managed to curve herself into a ball against his chest, despite falling asleep on the other side of the bed every night… it was what got him through each day. 'It is comforting' he thought as he pulled himself off the bed and went to check on the steam tanks, 'that even if she does hate me when she's awake, in her sleep I can be with her…' Duncan's cheeks flushed a light pink as he opened the steam tank before him, convincing himself that his face was hot because of the steam he had just accidentally unleashed onto it as tears streamed temporarily from his eyes.

As he wiped his eyes and his goggles on his head with the corner of his lab coat, he realised that the room was getting darker; he mustn't have noticed the time pass by while he was thinking about… Duncan looked out of the window on one side of the house and saw that the sun was still light in the sky, whilst setting, and bright. Duncan frowned as he poked his head out of the door in front of the door and turned around the other way, closing the door behind him. His blood ran cold.

"Blood Moon…" he whispered in horror as he saw the tip of a red circle starting to rise into the sky, already seeing the shadows appear as the world started to turn darker. Looking around him, he wondered why he felt so panic; the Chocobo's would be fine, and Kim and him had managed to face one befor… Duncan's eyes widened as he looked out into the growing darkness as he heard a high female scream pierce through the air. "KIM!" he screamed as he ran into the night, forgetting everything else and the danger the Blood Moon held as he ran towards the dark direction where he had heard the screams.

***

"DUNCAN!" Kim screamed desperately as she ran through the trees, branches and monsters stopping her path alike as she quickly darted past them and ran through the ever growing darkness. She had spotted the Red Moon too late, she had headed back as soon as she had seen the sun set but she was still so far away… she was running low on supplies and her sword was useless. She didn't even have armour to protect her as he skin was scratched as she crashed onwards in a forward direction. She managed to reach a small clearing which seemed temporarily void of monsters; hurriedly she stacked some oak planks into a pattern against a tree and crouched beneath it, sealing her off. She held her breath as she heard the monsters around her, knowing most of them were almost blind and focused on movement and noise rather than unusually crafted objects.

Kim shivered as she hugged herself in the small and cramped space. Why hadn't she noticed the Blood Moon sooner? And why was she so poorly equipped… "Duncan…" she mumbled savagely with her eyes narrowed, thinking of all the useless alloys lying in the bottom of the stupid smeltery. Stupid… Duncan. It was his entire fault.

'_But Kim, you can make armour out of the iron…" _Duncan's voice reminded her in her head as Kim unhappily realised was true. Why hadn't she made herself armour? She was too reliant on Duncan… that was why. Kim nodded to herself firmly as she focused on that reason of blame instead. '_You have no one to blame but yourself…'_ the voice whispered again as Kim's head sank onto her knees as she started to cry silently. It was true. She needed Duncan.

It was pointless, absolutely pointless trying to fool herself anymore. She needed Duncan for everything. She needed a friend to talk to, to laugh with, to help her… he wouldn't have let her forget about the Blood Moon. She was the one who had walked away, because she was jealous of a few stupid birds. And because she was selfish and impatient. And so stubborn. Kim wiped the tears away, smiling slightly. "When did I become the stubborn one…?" she whispered to herself, thinking of hours before when Duncan's happy face had tried to materialise on her own, and she hadn't let it. Duncan who, whenever she had a nightmare, pretended he was asleep when she woke up beside him so she could hide her embarrassment. "Duncan… help…" she cried softly as she heard the noise of monsters around her grow; they weren't completely blind, they wouldn't ignore the strange structure she had made for long…

Kim raised her head with determined eyes. Duncan wasn't coming. He was probably safe indoors, worrying about her and the Chocobo's… or even worse, he was out looking for her! Kim gasped as the thought crossed her mind; what happens if he was out there, looking for her? He could be badly hurt; it was certain death to venture out in a Blood Moon! "Well, that does it then…" Kim said to herself quietly as she readied herself, bracing her feet against the wooden panel. After a calming breath, and briefly wondering if it was the last one she'd ever take, she kicked the wooden panelling out from in from her, shakily getting to her feet. Out of the corner of her eye she saw hundreds of monsters turn at the noise and bear their fangs, but she was already running… and whilst she was running, despite knowing that it would only attract more monsters, she couldn't bear the thought of Duncan fighting those monsters alone whilst trying to find her; if he was out there, she was going to find him.

"DUNCAN!" She screamed as she ran, repeating it constantly as she managed to dodge the majority of monster attacks, a moving and slightly glowing purple blur in the almost complete darkness as she stumbled and ran. Arrows shot past her head, hands lunged for her backpack, webbed legs dangled in front of her vision whilst all the while she ran and screamed, managing to avoid most of them. Suddenly, slightly to the left of her, she saw a light and without thinking, ran towards it. Her heart nearly burst with relief as she spotted the base… no, her home, her sanctuary as she ran across the clearing, making out the blurred shapes that were either creature or monster as she avoided them. "Duncan!" she shouted, praying she would see his face appear by the window anxiously.

"Kim!" a voice called desperately, and Kim felt a wave of relief wash over her before realising it had not come from the direction of the house; it had come from the left of her somewhere.

"Duncan, where are you?!" Kim shrieked ducking as a skeleton fired an arrow at her and falling to the ground; she dimly made out a figure running next to her and assumed it was Duncan.

"Get to the house Kim!" Duncan called and Kim obeyed, dodging past the skeleton as she heard it place another arrow in its bow; she felt the arrow strike her back of her head but kept running, hearing it die behind her as Duncan hit it with something and ran behind her, Kim unable to think about anything other than the light as she made it to the house at the same time Duncan did, collapsing after shutting the doors behind them.

Kim instantly searched through the chests and placed blocks in front of the door. "It's okay Kim…" she heard Duncan's voice tell her but she ignored it, racing over to the other side of the house and bordering up the doors there too; she was about to start on all the windows when she felt two hands grab her shoulders and pick her up. Instantly she screamed and started to struggle, kicking widely.

"KIM, YOU HAVE AN ARROW IN YOUR HAIR!" Duncan's voice bellowed from directly behind her, so sudden and loud that Kim stopped in shock as Duncan placed her down and quickly removed the arrow, checking to see if her head had been damaged by it and closing his eyes briefly in relief as there was nothing. Kim was still facing away from him and he put his hands on her shoulders again; although she winced, she allowed herself to be pushed and guided towards the steam taps where Duncan promptly placed her under one and turned it on, showering her with hot, blinding steam.

Kim sat, shocked, as she slowly felt her cold body heat up again, landing on her hair and rolling down to her wet feet – the steam burned at first but it made her close her eyes, and she let the heat wash over her for a few minutes, only moving to tilt her head slightly towards the tap so it would cover her face. It was Duncan who eventually turned the steam off, purely as she was in danger of overheating without realising; Kim hadn't even realised how cold she had been. Kim opened her eyes to try and attempt a smile at Duncan, who was standing over her, and covered her hands over her mouth to hold back yet another scream.

Duncan's face was bloodied, and he had a large dark bruise on the side of his chin; she would have blamed this on the flux, but that was on the other side of his face. His coat was torn and ripped and streaked with his own blood and monster blood alike as he watched her carefully, assessing her with his sad and pained eyes that held onto her own. She tore her eyes away from his gaze and noticed his pickaxe propped up by the door, a side covered in blood. Her attention was brought back to Duncan though as he let his backpack fall heavily to the floor; inside Kim could see the broken remains of a sword. She looked back at him, her inability to move no longer due to physical reasons as she heard all the monsters snarling at her from inside her head; this time she saw the surrounding Duncan.

"I tried to find you." Duncan's voice broke the silence as he attempted to wipe away some of the blood that was trickling down his face. Duncan knew he must look terrible but he was glad, as far as he could tell, that Kim had only been scratched slightly across her body; possibly the flux had prevented her from being harmed too badly, acting as a shield…? He saw Kim's questioning eyes as she looked at his bruises and cuts and shrugged his shoulders, wincing slightly as he did so; a skeleton had shot an arrow into his left shoulder before but he had merely snapped it off. He honestly hadn't started to feel any of the pain until now – Kim had been the only thing he had been able to think of.

Kim took a deep, shaky breath and managed to croak out "I tried to find you too…" before bursting into tears, ashamed with herself for feeling so terrible when it was all her fault, when Duncan was hurt more badly than she was and yet she was the one crying, how she was now crying into Duncan's favourite purple shirt beneath his ruined coat as he had quickly taken it off and wrapped her in a hug.

"Shush…" Duncan murmured into her hair gently as her body shook with uncontrollable sobs. "I'm here…" he said, remembering a previous time when he had said those words to Kim when she was half-asleep, safe and sound in Panda Labs. "I'm here, Kim" he promised, clutching the small girl tightly in his arms, remembering the shape and feel of her against his chest, almost as if she was sleeping. He tried to pour all of those calm thoughts into his embrace as she started to calm down, knowing it was stupid and it was possible to channel the remainder of his energy into the small tired person before him, but he couldn't help it.

"I'm so sorry, it's my entire fault…" she repeatedly whispered into his chest as Duncan rested the side of his face on her head. Duncan pulled back at that point and ducked his head to stare into her eyes, holding her face carefully.

Kim watched his mouth form the words as she only half heard them through her ears; "Kim, it's not your fault. Never think it's your fault. It's either my fault, or it's our fault. It will never be yours." Kim blinked back tears as she realised just how serious Duncan's eyes were, and became aware of the hands cupping her face. Leaning into one of them, she allowed herself to forget about everything for a moment and placed her hand on top of it, closing her eyes into the warm and rough feel of his hands. Duncan was thankful Kim had her eyes closed as he had turned red, wondering for a split second if she would mind if he…

Before he had even reached the end of that thought, Duncan gently pulled his hand out from Kim's grasp, Kim opening her eyes and looking at him briefly with sad and slightly guilty eyes. Before she could say anything, even though she didn't know what she would say, he had scooped her up in his arms and had carried her to the bed, laying her gently down on the pillows. As soon as her head touched the sort fabric, her consciousness left her as she closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds.

Duncan turned and sat crossed legged opposite the bed. He knew it was weird for a friend to watch another friend sleep but he wanted to make sure that someone was protecting the house – it was almost impossible to sleep in a Blood Moon due to the noises and the knowledge that there were monsters outside; it was too dangerous to sleep. Kim had managed to because Duncan was there. He smiled sadly, knowing that it was mainly due to her exhaustion and traumatic experience; he recalled his diary entry of meeting her for the first time and the smile turned into a grimace as it stretched the bruise over the side of his face. He had failed to protect her from the taint, failed to protect Panda Labs and now this. He wasn't going to let her down again.

Maybe she'd be so traumatised tomorrow that she would avoid him even more than before… maybe she'd be so scared that she's cling close to her side. Maybe, in a few weeks or months, he might have the courage, when the scars had healed, to ask her why she had looked at him in that way when she had covered his hand with hers. Duncan's chest gave a strange lurch as he pushed the last thought out of his head. It could all wait. For now, he had to think of only her. Duncan promised this to himself as he noticed, with a heavy heart, the Red Moon had risen and was not close to setting – there was still a lot of night to go. At least though, as he looked back at Kim and smiled through the pain, that they were safe.


	7. Dreams and Nightmares

_**AN: Hi! So I think I promised that this chapter would be more cheerful but... a lot of you liked the drama so... here be more drama! Warning; chocolate once again advised for beginning but after that it's fiiine... O:) reviews always appreciated, makes me write more often and whatnot so... let me know what you think! Enjoy :) **_

"_Hey Duncan! Duncan, look!" Duncan glanced up from his work to peer out of the window, watching the small purple girl sail towards him on a glider, stumbling slightly as she landed. Bouncing through the door, she beamed happily and held out her hands._

_"What am I meant to be looking at?" Duncan as, bewildered, as he watched Kim's outstretched hands motion towards him. She laughed as she linked her hand in his, pulling him outside into the sunny day. Duncan blinked a few times, adjusting to the sudden brightness; he had been working inside for too long again._

_"__Come on Duncan!" Kim grinned eagerly as she let go of his hands and flew up into the sky, gliding away towards the sun. Duncan squinted, unable to look. _

_"__Wait for me!" he called, flying after her. As he flew, he noticed the world was changing around him. The sun was dying, the trees were fading and monsters were appearing covered in taint, snarling and snatching at him. His jetpack disappeared as he flew into the ground, crashing to the ground. Raising his head, he watched as Kim landed, laughing, as the monsters swarmed towards her._

_"__KIM!" Duncan screamed, reaching for her as a skeleton shot an arrow into her head. Kim continued to laugh at Duncan, motioning for him to join her, seemingly unable to feel the arrow which should have killed her. "KIM, RUN!" Duncan shouted as a creeper blew up beside her, knocking her off her feet and into the outstretched purple arms of a zombie as she continued to giggle and laugh. "KIM! NO!" Duncan managed to pick himself up and flung himself in-between the arms of the zombie as it suddenly disappeared before him. All the mobs disappeared whilst Kim's laughter finally stopped._

_She turned to Duncan, her body covered in the flux, head bowed down. "They were my friends Duncan… I just wanted to show you my friends…" she said sadly as she looked up as Duncan watched, horrified, as she stared at him with empty purple eyes and held out her outstretched hands to Duncan, dripping with blood and flux. "Duncan… Duncan…" she chanted as Duncan stumbled away from her, aware of his own hands turning purple. "Duncan… Duncan…" she continued as Duncan watched the sad fluxed girl in front of him and stopped running, feeling the taint spread to his shoulders, deciding to merely close his eyes in defeat. They were both dead anyway. She was dead._

"Duncan… Duncan… DUNCAN!" Kim was yelling as Duncan's eyes shot open as he sat up quickly in his bed, breathing healthily, not knowing where he was for a second. "Duncan... calm down, it's me, its Kim…" Duncan spun his head around and saw Kim sitting on the edge of the bed, holding half a bucket of water in her hands as she watched him cough as he failed to take a breath. Kim watched in shock as Duncan gradually became aware of his surroundings, looking everywhere and at everything apart from her. Eventually he ran his hands through his hair, momentarily looking panicked as he drew them in front of him. "I poured water on you…" Kim feebly explained as Duncan continued to examine his hands carefully, turning them over. Kim was worried; she'd never seen Duncan like this before.

"…Hi." Kim came out of her thoughts to see Duncan looking at her, with what looked like an attempted smile on his face. The injuries from… that night… were still healing but you couldn't tell from a distance that he had been hurt. They had both been coping so well. Or so Kim had thought.

"Hi…?" she asked questionably back as Duncan glanced out of the window, noting that the sun hadn't come up yet. He would have probably woken up in an hour or so if it hadn't been for that… nightmare.

"Why are you awake?" he asked, swearing to himself under his breath at the look Kim gave him in response. A mixture of pity and sympathy combined with a hint of 'really-you-don't-know?'. She shouldn't be awake before him, he was the one who had to get up earlier than her each day...

"You woke me up…" Kim muttered, putting down the bucket and playing with her hair instead, wondering if she should say the rest. Duncan had his face in his hands and Kim decided to risk it.

"You were saying my name… a lot…" Kim began, noticing how Duncan immediately froze. She continued "I thought you were laughing at first… but then your voice changed; it became more anxious and worried and…" she trailed off, recalling shaking Duncan desperately as he had clawed at her and the pillow before she had given up to run outside for a bucket for water; when she returned he had been limp, and for a split second she didn't breathe. She replayed the moment when she had ran over to his seemingly lifeless body, spilling water in the process, only to notice that he was whimpering slightly and tears were leaking through his scrunched, closed eyes. She had thought he was gone. She had thought she was alone.

"… and then I poured water on you and you woke up!" Kim concluded, trying to sound cheerful as Duncan peeked through his hands and looked at her in disbelief.

"Really?" he questioned, his voice still slightly shaking as he took another deep breath. That was the worst nightmare he had ever experienced… well, definitely a top three; the nuke and the past was an old favourite in his nightmares. "...I think I preferred your bottled nightmares" he said after a while as she smiled at him and giggled slightly. As she did, he was reminded of his dream and had to look away again, causing the slight smile and giggling to stop on Kim's face. She edged closer to him, only stopping when he looked back at her a few seconds later.

"What happened?" she asked in a low voice, not wanting to press him but curious to know at the same time. The screaming, the crying… what could possibly have made Duncan hurt to the extent where even a smile from her couldn't cheer him up?

Duncan rolled away from her, facing the wall. "Well… there were monsters and the flux had pretty much spread everywhere…" he tried to say casually, managing to succeed in sounding indifferent about it. He knew Kim was nodding behind him, despite being unable to see her.

"I guess that would be pretty scary…" she smiled, as Duncan made a noise in agreement. Kim knew he wouldn't say the rest, but she could guess that she had been taken over by the taint. Just thinking about it made the voices whisper more urgently in her head… Kim shook her head, unable to take her eyes off Duncan's back. She was curious though; why had he been so shaken? Pausing, she asked carefully "… did you get taken over by the taint?"

Duncan edged further away from her, closing his eyes and sighing, telling Kim that he didn't want to talk about it. She yawned obviously, destroying the torch that she had lit beside them, and climbed onto her side of the bed, once again noticing Duncan freeze; his nightmare must have been terrible... she must have been terrible. She stared at the ceiling for a while, listening to Duncan's uneven breathing as he failed to control them, slowly drifting off to sleep as the minutes passed; it was still dark enough outside to pretend it was night.

"I don't know, Kim." Duncan's voice whispered through the darkness as Kim's eyes fluttered open, darting over to look at the shape that was Duncan. He rolled over to face her and she quickly shut her eyes again, despite knowing that in the dark he'd probably be unable to see them open anyway.

Duncan listened as he heard Kim's even breathing and sighed. "I didn't care about the Flux taking me; I was unable to save you and I woke up before I knew what had happened to me. I had failed you." Duncan's voice cracked slightly on the last few words, watching as Kim seemingly woke up as he tried to turn over so he wasn't facing her. A hand on his shoulder prevented him from doing so as he looked back at Kim.

"Do you want to know what I dreamed about?" Kim whispered cheerfully. Duncan knew that she had heard him and also knew she was being kind enough to ignore that at the same time. Duncan turned red in the dimly lit room, reassuring himself that he hadn't given his feelings away, as he nodded before answering "Yes" in case she hadn't seen him.

Kim rolled over to face him; she couldn't see his face but still smiled away, just in case he could see her. "I dreamt we were with the Chocobos and you were looking after them all whilst I played with the smaller ones. Then you shouted something and I turned around and you had managed to get the black one and you let me have her and it was awesome Duncan, we went flying and we took the rest of them all on a run and it was really funny because you were trying to steer them all back home and they were all ignoring you…" Kim got wound up in her story telling and only realised when Duncan chuckled in response.

Kim cleared her throat. "Anyhow… after that we mucked about with all the flowers, and we were picking petals. We made the world's longest daisy chain, it wrapped around the whole house, and all the pipes too! And then we had these ridiculous flower outfits on and we were trying to race on who could get the most petals at one time…" she paused momentarily as she laughed as Duncan's sniggers had turned to outright laughter. "Excuse me!" she said indignantly, pretending to be offended as she continued over Duncan's hushed laughter "… so yeah, I won, obviously, and then we put flower petals in all of the Chocobos feathers and you got so grumpy because we couldn't tell them the females and males apart…" Kim once more gave into laughter as Duncan propped his head up on one hand, looking at her as she turned to face him, grinning. The sun must have risen slightly because she could make out more of the distinguished features on Duncan's face, like his nose, where his eyes were, and most importantly the smile on his face.

Kim took a deep breath before quickly carrying on "Ooh, and then we went up to the Slime Island and had a massive fight and the slime blocks acted as trampolines, so we jumped in the water, and Nilesy turned up and complained about us needing a pool so we put the luggages down and started mining for material and we decided on marble and cobblestone brick and we couldn't decide…"

"Kim, I'm alright now." Duncan's voice cut across Kim as she stopped, taking a short breath.

"What do you mean, I'm just telling you my dream; it's not finished yet!" she said innocently as she watched Duncan tilt his head to one side slightly and knew he was giving her a suspicious look. He sighed as he plonked his head back onto the pillow, seemingly closing his eyes.

"Go on then, how did it finish?" Duncan asked sarcastically as Kim stuck out her tongue before continuing.

"Um I don't really know, I'm running out… I mean," she laughed awkwardly as Duncan's eyes shot open as he laughed and pointed at her, saying something along the lines of 'Got you!' triumphantly, "…I can't really remember; you saved us from the taint and we lived happily ever after, the end!" she finished teasingly before stopping as she realised Duncan's laughter had suddenly cut off. Cursing herself, she quickly turned and re-lit the torch, casting a sudden light in the room. Allowing her eyes to adjust, she turned to see Duncan smiling at her, hair slightly ruffled, with slightly sad eyes.

"I'm sorry Duncan, I already forgot…" Kim started to apologise but Duncan waved her away, chuckling.

"Kim, stop apologising, I'm alright. We're alright." The sad look in his eyes was still there but Kim knew that he was being serious. Kim smiled and after a second he smiled back.

Duncan watched as Kim lay back on the bed next to him, staring at the ceiling. He mimicked her, wondering what she was seeing when she looked up at the dull greyness above them. He laughed under his breath and felt Kim turn to look at him.

"What?" she asked as Duncan shook his head.

"Nothing – I can just see an image of you wearing a petal outfit and looking ridiculous" Duncan said truthfully as Kim grabbed her pillow and threw it on his face as a response. Duncan picked up the pillow and looked as if he was going to throw it back at her, causing Kim to shriek in advance, but instead he propped it under his head. "Now I have all the pillows…" he said smugly as Kim realised her error and folder her arms across her chest crossly. Duncan closed his eyes and started to pretend to snore, to emphasise the point.

"Fine… in that case…" she said innocently as Duncan continued to snore, "… I get the covers!" As she said this, she leant over Duncan and grabbed the end of the covers, pulling and causing Duncan to yell as he fell out of the bed, holding onto the quilt and taking it partly down with him. "Ha!" Kim announced triumphantly as she held onto the covers with one hand and leaned forward to take the pillows. A tug from the quilt however caused Kim, despite having a tight grip on the cover, to go sailing over the bed after a few seconds of struggling, falling on Duncan as she shrieked as she landed on the covers and therefore on top of him, as Duncan had managed to wrap them around himself in a caterpillar fashion.

Kim pushed herself off Duncan and looked down at Duncan's defenceless smug face and considered hitting it for a second before settling on sitting on top of him instead. "Are you going to turn into a butterfly Duncan?" she asked sweetly as Duncan laughed and tried to get out from the covers, failing due to the small person sitting on top of him.

"Kim, let me go…" Duncan complained as Kim laughed evilly and pretended to consider his question. "I'll tickle you…" Duncan warned, expecting her to jump up and run away. She stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"You can't tickle me if you're trapped in a cocoon!" Kim pointed out, smiling innocently as Duncan realised this and tried to sulk instead, turning his face away from her. Kim leant over and grabbed the pillows, intending to hit him with them but stopped. She leant closer to him, suddenly serious. "Duncan, promise me that if you have any more bad dreams you'll tell me?" she asked, watching Duncan carefully for signs of lying when he said yes. He turned back to face her and smiled.

"Yes, okay… and you'll tell me if you have bad dreams too, yeah?" Duncan replied, waiting for her to lie and play with her hair, like she did when he asked her if she knew where all the metals had gone; she didn't though. Kim smile was a bit strained but she nodded happily.

"Yes, I promise too!" she said, propping a pillow behind Duncan's head before placing one on his face as she lay on top of him and the covers, pretending to go to sleep.

"KIM! I AM NOT A CAT MAT!" Duncan's muffled voice shouted at her but she ignored it, smiling wickedly. It was nice to know, even if it was just for a moment, that Duncan was somehow dependant on _her_ for once.


	8. The Final Ending

**Due to Kim's recent ASK KIM video (discussing shipping and all) I have decided to end this story with this chapter – I know she said about how she was fine for people to write fanfiction about her with shipping etc etc BUT I still kind of feel a bit guilty about it anyway haha :) so whilst I will still be inspired by the Yogscast and all that jazz, this will be the last chapter of this particular suggested shipping; as always, please review and send me prompts for new storys etc and yeah… as I said, hopefully I'll keep writing stuff (like my Cornerstone story, go check that out ;) [shameless self-promo there…] ) and yeah – enjoy the last chapter of this story; it's been a blast!**

Kim awoke in the early hours of the morning, stretching slightly and squinting out of one eye. It was barely light outside the windows and she could hear Duncan's snoring from across the room. Sitting up in the covers, she allowed a moment of disgust to pass on her face as she looked around at the purple bed she was sitting in. Yes, it was a bed and was comfy and she slept in it and yes, it was her favourite colour and it had been sweet of Duncan to make it… but…

Quietly crawling to the end of the four poster bed, she parted the hangings slightly and glanced out, seeing Duncan lying dangerously across the two hammocks – one wrong turn and he would fall flat on his face… which surprisingly didn't happen as often as it should. Kim smirked slightly as she recalled various mornings where Duncan had started fiddling with the smeltery with a red mark on his head and an almost sulky expression with a hint of hurt pride. However, that wasn't important. Kim took a moment to glare at the peacefully-sleeping-and-completely-unaware-of-Kim's-death-stare Duncan, who was still snoring happily in his sleep. Kim closed the parting and leaned back with an unhappy sigh. Yes, the bed was comfy, but Duncan's bed was way cooler - why didn't she have a hammock?

Grumpily, Kim dressed behind the partings, knowing that once awake and aware of Duncan's snores that it was impossible to go back to sleep. As she sneaked across the floorboards, she was almost tempted to put a bucket of water directly under the spot where Duncan's head would land if he fell out, but decided against it; as annoying as Duncan was sometimes, she didn't want to accidentally drown him. Kim grinned as she stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind her – the security photo did not work, despite what Duncan insisted, although Kim was happy for it to remain their; waking up to find it in front of her bed, whilst turned off, had been creepy as hell – even if Duncan denied everything whilst trying to keep a straight face.

The sun was only just starting to rise and Kim could hear some of the Chocos, obviously as eager to start the morning as she was, chirping away. She grinned as she headed over, deciding against using her jetback so she could stretch her legs, and opened the gate, closing it gently beside her. Most of the over Chocobos were asleep, but a few of the smaller ones made their way over to Kim as she sat down, pulling out her luggage and gently talking to them.

"Hello there! Why are you up and awake, huh? Why are you awake? Are you hungry? Breakfast will be soon, I promise…" she whispered to them whilst picking them up and lovingly petting them. However, their cheeps got more persistent as she mentioned breakfast and she eventually gave in to their adorable smiles and uprooted some of Duncan's plants to feed them. Giggling slightly at their stuffed faces, she left them eating and wandered over to her Botania hut, picking up her wand and rummaging through her bag of petals. It was relaxing making flowers… not all the time, but in the peacefulness of the morning, it was definitely a favourite part of the day. Kim played around with her petals and mana pools for a while past the point her daylight flowers were into bloom and was in a world of her own before she was shocked out of it by the sound of panicked yelling and an almighty crash from the direction of the house.

Worried, Kim ran over and into the house only to stop and laugh as Duncan was lying in the remains of the two hammocks, on the ground floor in a sea of wood with a gaping hole in the ceiling. Kim continued to laugh as Duncan picked himself up, correcting the position of the goggles on his head, which were slightly lopsided.

"What happened?" Kim asked as soon as she was able to stop laughing as Duncan began tidying up the pieces, good-humouredly letting Kim laugh at him as he glanced at her, laughing a bit himself.

"I got up, got dressed and sat back down on the hammock – next thing I know is I'm falling through the ceiling!" Duncan complained, subconsciously motioning to his back, which he had obviously landed on."

"Well, at least you're alright" Kim said sympathetically, laughing once more as Duncan agreed sarcastically whilst rolling his eyes. "Oh I have something to show you!" she said excitedly as she motioned for Duncan to follow her to her Botania hut.

"Hang on I need to feed the animals!" Duncan insisted as he slowly made his way outside, complaining under his breath about how he could have died whilst simultaneously managing to sulk with himself. Kim sighed impatiently.

"Fine, but come straight to the hut afterwards!" she half-threated, half-demanded as she waltzed over to her hut and Duncan went to feed the Chocobos and the dinosaurs. As Kim entered the hut however, a sudden silence came over her; glancing around worriedly, she brought her hands up to her ears, which felt muffled, only to feel nothing wrong. Hesitantly, she held a hand out in front of her and clicked her fingers together; no sound. Panicking now, she turned around to open the doors to find them somehow locked. She screamed, hoping to hear some noise of some sort, but there was no response. Except…

Kim strained to listen with her apparently death ears… yes, there was a noise. A very small, and barely heard noise coming from somewhere in the room; Kim listened intently and cautiously sneaked around her hut, listening as the voice became slightly louder as she neared the centre of the room.

"Kim, are you okay!?" Duncan burst into the hut, causing Kim to spin around.

"Don't let…" she began but the doors had already swung shut behind them, and she knew that they'd already be locked. Duncan seemed to notice the apparent lack of noise and frowned at Kim.

"Why is it so quiet in here…" he asked her with an eyebrow raised.

"I think we should be thinking why we can hear each other and nothing else!" Kim pointed out, although she was glad that she was able to hear Duncan as a break from the overwhelming silence.

"Or… maybe we just know each other so well now that we can lip-read what the other person is saying and we're imagining the sound of each other's voices…" Duncan teasingly suggested as Kim rolled her eyes. She crept forward again, listening intently as the noise had begun to start again.

"What…" Duncan began but Kim motioned for him to stop as she crept further forward, allowing the voices to rise slightly; she realised the voices were coming from the petal apothecary and she leant over it, an ear towards it – Duncan joined her a few moments later. Lying at the bottom was a pure white flower, but not a daisy – it seemed to be similar to a rose of some sort.

"I can't hear them…" Kim whispered as she bent down to pick up the flower, the voices becoming more frantic as she neared it.

A pair of purple eyes flashed into Kim's vision.

_DON'T TOUCH IT._

A voice had hissed from the corner of Kim's mind and Kim shouted, distancing herself from the petal apothecary as the voices became more relaxed, whilst still on edge. Duncan had also taken a few steps back, and from the look on his face had experienced the same thing.

"Kim… I'm going to pick it up…" he muttered to her as he edged towards the flower again.

"Don't!" Kim warned him, moving towards him, egged on by a thousand whispering voices in her head. She stopped though as Duncan turned towards her with a frown on his face.

"It's the Flux that's speaking Kim. It's _Mother_ who is speaking. And quite frankly, I'm willing to do the opposite of whatever she says right now." He said firmly and before Kim could stop him, reached into the base of the stone container and had picked the flower up.

Instantly a thousand voices screamed in Kim and Duncan's head, causing both of them to fall in pain; however, Duncan did not drop the flower. After a few moments, the voices started to die away and soon there was silence again – this time however, they could hear birds outside and the whisper of the wind through the trees. Kim held her head in her hands and picked herself up.

"Duncan, why do you always have to…" she began but stopped immediately as Duncan picked himself up and looked at her. The purple that had been creeping onto the side of his face had… gone. It had simply disappeared.

"Duncan… your hands…" she whispered, motioning towards his gloves. Duncan, noticing Kim's expression when looking at his face, hastily put the flower down carefully into the jar, and tore his gloves off; underneath, his hands were deprived of their purple colour and he ran over to the water barrel, studying his face intently.

"Kim… the Flux is gone… it's gone!" he shouted happily, dancing around the room as Kim watched him in surprise. He glanced over at her and held the flower out to her after scooping it from bottom of the container.

"Kim, hold it!" he commanded excietedly as Kim stepped away from him.

"I.. I can't Duncan…" she whispered, looking at it in fright. Duncan looked from the flower to Kim, confused.

"Kim.. it's alright, the voices have gone!"

"No they haven't… they're just… more…" Kim whispered as her head started to protest with more voices urging her away from the flower. She knelt to the floor as she whimpered in pain, causing Duncan to approach her.

"KEEP IT AWAY FROM ME!" she snarled at him as Duncan and the flower came closer and for a split second Duncan swore that Kim's other eye had turned purple as it flashed at him. Duncan took a few steps back reluctantly as Kim visibly relaxed.

"Okay… okay… don't worry Kim, I'll figure this out…" Duncan promised her as she crawled to a corner of the room, shaking noticeably. Kim merely nodded weakly, closing her eyes as Duncan leapt past her and out of the room, the doors no longer locked. As he studied the flower in the sunlight above him, he noticed that the tip of one of the petals had been stained a little purple, hardly even noticeable. Struck with an idea, Duncan flew over to the infected taint area, which was a lot closer than before and settled down in roughly the centre. Cautiously, he looked around and dropped the plant into some of the tainted soil.

Almost immediately the earth started to shake around him as Duncan stumbled slightly. Flying off the shaking ground slightly, his jaw dropped open as he saw that the purple taint of the landscape was seemingly being sucked into the petals of the flower and his smiled in amazement as he noticed the trees were becoming greener and that some of the tainted flowers were gaining colour. A distant snarl alerted his sense however as he noticed a pack of tainted wolves heading straight for the flower, drooling purple saliva and howling in pain. Duncan leapt to the floor and drew out his sword, guarding the precious and defenceless plant behind him as the wolves were joined by other monsters, skeletons and zombies and infected pigs alike.

Duncan didn't know how long he stood there, slashing and beheading monsters and creatures and tentacles alike as the all advanced towards this miracle flower, but he knew enough that as he destroyed the last taint swarm and the grass was purple beneath his feet, the area was cleansed from the taint. He picked up the flower once more which instantly drained in all the tainted blood and purple from his clothes, the tips of the all the petals a significant purple, but still an overwhelming white. Taking a moment to admire the landscape, he flew back towards the base and called out for Kim, heading into her Botania hut. As he glanced in the corner, however, a terrible sight met his eyes.

Purple stains, almost like paint, were lying in the corner and on the wall, fingerprints visible with a large trail leading towards the apothecary. As he moved closer to inspect it, the taint seemed to disappear, almost as if someone had brushed it away; the flower seemed to glow in his top breast pocket where it lay. Duncan followed the trail around the room and out through the other door, following it towards the Chocobos. He simply looked at the view in front of him as all the Chocobos laid slain, purple stains on their feathers; he only started running when he noticed the small purple girl lying in a ball in the centre of the pen.

He dropped to his knees beside her, shaking her. "Kim! Kim! Wake up!" he screamed at her as she flopped uselessly from side to side; as he did so, he heard a strangled chirp from below her arm and rolled her over. Underneath her arm, there were three small chocos, splashed with purple and looking like they were on the verge of death. As Duncan scooped them in his arms, however, the purple began to fade – after a few moments two of the chocos lifted their heads wearily. Duncan waited for the third to lift its head and gently poked it in its side, but it made no moment. After a few moments of waiting, Duncan set its body on the floor gently.

"Did I save them…?" Kim's voice quietly asked as Duncan's head shot up, and he rolled Kim over so she was facing him. She had her eyes open with purple tears rolling out of them as she looked up at Duncan with purple eyes. Duncan sat motionlessly beside her as he examined her, taking in that the whole of her body was covered in taint. He held up the two birds wordlessly and she smiled painfully.

"Good… did the third make it…?" she asked hesitantly, coughing slightly. Duncan looked at her and smiled, although there were tears rolling down his face.

"You saved it Kim… it didn't make it, but you saved it…" he managed to say, his voice breaking as Kim nodded and closed her eyes. Duncan roughly shook her again.

"No Kim, keep your eyes open. OPEN." He yelled at her as she opened them once more, tiredly.

"Duncan, they're not my eyes… Mother says they're her eyes…" she said wearily, as if she'd had this argument a thousand times in her head already. Duncan shook his head.

"They're your eyes and I can prove it!" he shouted, tears falling fast as he unfastened the flower from his pocket and placed into Kim's hair, alongside the other purple flowers. Instantly Kim's face scrunched up in pain as she cried out.

"Duncan! It hurts, please, take it away!" she pleaded as her eyes sought Duncan, who moved away from her.

"I promised I wouldn't ever hurt you intentionally Kim… but I'm going to have to break that promise today. If it means saving you then I will have to hurt you. If it means you hate me and die or live, then so be it. I _will _save you from the taint!" Duncan shouted at Kim as her body shook and stretched out as if some poison was leaving her system. The taint slowly creeped away from her legs, leaving them a weak, pinkish colour and unwillingly travelled up her body, almost scraping the skin off her as it drew closer into the flowers. Duncan closed his eyes and placed a hand to his mouth, biting down to stop himself from the pain he could almost feel from Kim's scream, drawing blood. Finally, after what seemed like an age of screaming, and as the last rays of sun disappeared from the sky, Kim's body gave a final shudder, and was still. The torches on the pen were already lit, giving an almost heavenly glow to the area as the stars shone down above them. Duncan, with a tear-streaked face, drew Kim close to him and cried unashamedly as her body hung limply and the flower fell from her hair… significantly more purple than it had been before.

Duncan held onto Kim's body as he howled wordlessly into the night, as his grief and pain turned to anger. He placed Kim down gently before standing up and pointing angrily up to the stars.

"Is this my punishment? For all those things I've done, and apparently will do in the future?! Is this what I get, for trying to make a difference in this world?!" he paced around furiously, breathing heavily.

"I tried to be good! I tried to protect her! I did my best! So how am I alive? HOW IS SHE DEAD!?" he screamed into the night, the stars swallowing his anger silently. He collapsed to his knees, all strength leaving him.

"If she was just still alive… Zoey is still alive, she just doesn't see Rythian anymore… just let her be alive, please. That will be enough…" He leant towards the fallen flower and stroked it's petals, feeling the smoothness on his skin. He closed his eyes as if he was in prayer.

"Just… bring her back. Or take me. I'll get rid of the rest of the Flux across this world… just let her be alive…" he whispered to the flower, failing to notice the figure rising behind him.

"…Duncan? You do realise I'm alive, right?" a voice groggily called out to him as Duncan whirled around to see slightly shaken but standing Kim, with perfect brown eyes and a slight smile on her face, holding the third choco which was chirping and very much alive. Duncan pulled her into a tight hug, almost crumbling the animal between them before drawing back and checking it carefully.

"Oh… did you hear what I said?" Duncan tried to ask casually whilst wiping his eyes. Kim nodded.

"To be honest, I'm surprised that you weren't confessing your undying love to me or something" she joked as Duncan laughed weakly and shook his head, realising that his feelings for Kim had almost… disappeared. Not just his feelings for her in what could be considered a romantic way either… his feelings of protectiveness, of friendship almost had significantly vanished.

"Mother said that we were connected strongly by the Flux and that's why you felt the way you did." Kim said simply as Duncan looked at worryingly, nodding however as it made sense on a scientific level.

"So it's like… everything we did together whilst infected with the Flux never happened…" Duncan realised, stating this out-loud to Kim, who nodded in relief.

"It feels like that" she admitted, as both she and Duncan looked sadly at each other for a moment. The friendship had been fake, planned by the Flux and by _Mother._ Duncan nodded, glancing up in the sky. This was his justice, his final payment. He knew it was coming before Kim opened her mouth, and knew he deserved it too. He had paid an unimaginable cost, but it was worth it for Kim to stay alive.

"I think, maybe I should spend some time on my own now… do a bit of my own stuff, build some things, grow some plants, cook lots of food… I mean, you did kind of break you promise by hurting me and when Sjin did that I left so maybe it's… well…" Kim suggested worriedly, waiting for Duncan to react; Duncan could tell she was so afraid he wouldn't let her go. However, Duncan smiled to himself sadly - he had let her go in the moment he had thought she was gone. He just wouldn't take her back… at least, not yet.

"Good idea… I think I'm going to look into some more complicated science stuff you wouldn't understand anyway… like taming dinosaurs and making a zoo!" he suggested cheekily, laughing with Kim as she looked relieved and exasperated.

"Yeah… you could call it 'Duncan's Park' or something" she suggested sarcastically, laughing as Duncan took her seriously, already forming plans.

"So what will you do?" he asked Kim as she smiled at him in the moonlight.

"Not sure… I think I'll make a massive village for people to live in; so people like you can come stay somewhere when you come visit me!" she said, hinting obviously as she looked at Duncan hopefully.

"Yeah… it'll be quite a while before you're able to house people though" Duncan pointed out as Kim nodded gratefully, relieved as she knew he understood she needed space and time to heal. She leant forward and gave him a friendly hug, which he returned and motioned towards the houses behind them.

"I'll just… get my things and go" she suggested, walking away from him. As an arrow whizzed past her head though, narrowly missing her, she speedily walked back to Duncan, who already had a sword in his hands. "Or I could leave in the morning when it's safer…" she said decisively, laughing with Duncan as they walked back to their bedrooms for the last time. As they leapt into their respective beds, Kim was distracted from examining her smiling non-tainted self in her hand mirror by Duncan's voice.

"Hey Kim?"

"Yes Duncan?"

"You should call the village 'Nano's Village'."

"Why?"

"Because the village will be small and you're small… and you measure small things in nanometres…."

"OI!"

"Well, you're also pretty loud as well… I know! I officially name you 'Nanosounds' because that's beautifully ironic!"

Kim allowed herself to think before responding to Duncan's stifled laughter.

"Fine, Lividcoffee, I gladly accept Nanosounds if you now go by the name I just created."

"What the hell is a 'Lividcoffee'?"

"Well you're always more likely to be mad with me at stuff which I do wrong unless you have a coffee; in which case you're a charming person!"

"Kim?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Goodnight Lividcofee!" Kim said sweetly as she closed her eyes, smirking. She was already planning the various building and plants she would have in her little village – with a little help on the side, possibly…

"Goodnight Nanosounds…." Duncan's voice trailed off sleepily. He had a lot of work to do once Kim was gone tomorrow – travelling the world trying to find a real cure for the taint, such as discovering the elements of the miracle flower, was going to take a long time.

.

.

.

Ridgedog watched the sleeping mortals and smiled. Accidentally dropping his flower that could cure any illness had been the right thing to do… it would be hell to explain to the _others_ though… He wondered briefly if he could pass it off as an accident… that it had been coincidental it had landed directly in that petal alter thing…

He smiled to himself as he looked at the world below him, a little more greener; just the way he liked it – he hated the colour purple.


End file.
